Review Roundup: Royal Shakespeare Company's MATILDA

Charles Spencer, The Telegraph: Matthew Warchus’s thrilling, warm-hearted production, exuberantly designed by Rob Howell and with pin-sharp choreography by Peter Darling, constantly combines comedy with a sense of wonder. [Bertie] Carvel – who is especially sinister in his soft-spoken moments of icy stillness and calm – is at once terrifying and hilarious, and the cherry on the cake of this glorious production.

Quentin Letts, The Daily Mail: Matilda is a fabulous family fizzer. It has strong tunes, witty lyrics and enough ‘eew!’ moments to satisfy the most revolting urchin...It all ends with the audience uncertain whether or not to blub or cheer. You might even do both.

Paul Levy, Wall Street Journal: This show is critic-bulletproof. Who could be so churlish as not to adore nine perfectly-drilled kids singing and dancing their hearts out, with (on press night) tiny Cleo Demetriou in the title role, unselfconscious but able to belt out a number like the petite pro she stunningly is?

Michael Coveney, What's On Stage: But there are a few bumps in the adaptation by Dennis Kelly, and Tim Minchin’s songs are deficient in nothing except melody...But I have no complaints at all about Matthew Warchus’s production, which is a “school’s out” exercise in joyous liberation as Matilda – I saw the delightful, waif-like pocket dynamo Sophia Kiely, one of four girls rotating in the role – which pitches our heroine against the malign forces of her book-hating parents.

Lisa Martland, The Stage: This much-anticipated RSC production could easily have been a disappointment, with expectations high after its triumphant Stratford-upon-Avon opening last year and the stream of awards that followed. It is nothing of the sort. The best pieces of musical theatre come from great collaborations - the right people being in the right place at the right time - with each ingredient complementing the other. 

Julie Carpenter, Daily Express: It proves an absolute cracker of a show, bursting with dynamism, fizzing with verve and packed full of slightly naughty children swung around by their pigtails played by incredible child actors who perform their socks off.